Milder & Rainier Weather Pattern Expected Through This Weekend Across Western & Central Mass

For This Afternoon: Somewhat drier air will work into the area this afternoon. This means that even though it’ll be generally cloudy, it will be dry this afternoon. Temperatures this afternoon will be between 35 and 40 Degrees. Tonight: Cloudy skies with areas of drizzle and fog can be expected for tonight. It should be noted that some patchy freezing drizzle is possible later tonight, especially in the Worcester Hills. Low temperatures tonight will be between 32 and 36 Degrees. Thursday: Milder temperatures are expected on Thursday even though skies will be cloudy. In addition, some scattered rain showers are possible by late afternoon. High temperatures Thursday will be near 45 Degrees. New Year’s Eve: A southwesterly wind flow will be in place on Friday with a mild day expected under cloudy skies. High temperatures New Year’s Eve will be near 45 Degrees. It appears that cloudy skies with some scattered rain showers should affect First Night activities. Temperatures Friday evening will fall from about 40 to 45 Degrees at around 7-8 pm to around 40 Degrees at midnight to about 35 to 40 Degrees by sunrise New Year’s Day morning. This is a much milder weather pattern than what I anticipated even a couple of days ago. New Year’s Day: It looks like a wet and mild day for New Year’s Day as it appears that a low pressure system will move across northern parts of New England putting our area in a continued southwesterly wind flow. I think that day will begin with some scattered rain showers during the morning with steady rain expected during the afternoon on New Year’s Day. Rain is then expected to continue through all of Saturday night. High temperatures Saturday will be between 50 and 55 Degrees. Low temperatures Saturday night will be between 45 and 50 Degrees. Sunday: It appears that a frontal boundary will gradually make its way eastward into the northeastern United States during Sunday. The big questions are how quickly will this front move through and will there be any leftover moisture on the back side of the front. The GFS weather model forecasts that the front wont move through until later Sunday night. The European weather model, on the other hand, shows a frontal passage during Sunday afternoon. Additionally, the GFS model holds onto moisture on the backside of the front while the European model does not. This would mean the difference between a GFS weather model forecast of rain changing to accumulating snow late Sunday night and Monday morning and a European weather model forecast of precipitation ending as rain Sunday afternoon with cold air moving in afterwards. My experience with these types of scenarios are that there’s usually not much moisture on the backside of the front as the dry air moves in too quick cutting off any moisture. So, my thinking is that rain will probably continue throughout much of the day on Sunday with the rain ending by late afternoon. The high temperatures for Sunday will likely occur during the morning with readings near 50 Degrees expected. Temperatures will then probably gradually fall through the 40s during Sunday afternoon. Monday & Tuesday: Colder weather returns to the area for early next week on a gusty northwest wind. Monday is expected to be sunny, but cold and windy. High temperatures Monday will struggle to make it to 30 Degrees. Northwest winds will gust up to 30 to 35 mph at times on Monday. Tuesday also looks sunny and cold with high temperatures around 30 Degrees.